The present invention relates to suprapubic catheters.
Patients are commonly catheterized with urinary or Foley catheters in which the catheter is passed through the urethra of a patient until a distal end of the catheter is located in the patient's bladder. During catheterization with a urinary catheter, urine drains from the bladder through the catheter, and through a drainage tube attached to a promixal end of the catheter to a drainage bag for collection therein. In suprapubic systems, a catheter is passed through the abdominal wall of the patient until a distal end of the catheter is located in the bladder. During catheterization with a suprapubic catheter, urine drains from the bladder through the catheter, through a drainage tube connected to a proximal end of the catheter to a drainage bag for collection therein.
There are important advantages of the suprapubic catheter over the urinary catheter. First, the incidence of infection in the suprapubic systems is much less than that in urinary catheters. Second, if surgery has taken place in the region of the urethra, it is desirable to keep the catheter from the surgical area to promote healing. Third, urinary catheters prevent normal voiding by the patient, while the suprapubic systems permit voiding once the drainage tube in the suprapubic system is closed. Hence, in suprapubic systems the physician may readily determine whether the patient is ready to void naturally, while in urinary catheter systems the catheter must be removed from the patient to achieve this result. Finally, the suprapubic systems are more comfortable for the patient than urinary catheters, and the suprapubic systems increase the mobility of the patient.
However, prior suprapubic catheters generally have a coil at a distal end located in the bladder, and it has been found that some of the coils of thermoplastic materials have a tendency to straighten out and pass into the urethra thus blocking drainage of the catheter.